Big ideas are what successful business is all about. Each week, Alexandra Cain takes a look at anything and everything to help your business shoot the lights out.

There are times in your career when you think: What’s my next step? Where am I going from here? What’s my next challenge?

If you work in a business, sometimes it can be tempting to step on others to get yourself in a better position – perhaps by white-anting colleagues, or maybe just by playing the political game to your full advantage.

We’ve all seen it happen – you might have witnessed a colleague who audaciously steals someone else’s idea and claims it as their own, to the applause of management. Or maybe you’ve witnessed workmates systematically brown-nosing superiors to position themselves for a great leap forward.

But does stepping on others really help you get ahead? One business owner, who prefers to remain anonymous, knows from experience how damaging it can be to be stepped on.

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“My experience is drawn from a family business. I believe I constantly contributed more hours and effort to the business for what I believed was the 'greater good', only to be stepped on for others’ perceived benefits,” he says.

“Needless to say I'm no longer involved in the company. I now have my own business, where I ensure I never step on anyone, in any way.”

According to Karen Bremner from Brisbane’s Key Coaching, stepping on others is a seriously career-limiting move.

“The job market has changed. In a hyper-connected, LinkedIn world, your reputation is everything,” she says.

“The majority of jobs are never advertised; they are filled by word of mouth, recommendation and referral – because we do business with people we like.

“Walking over other people might give you a short-term career boost, but you’ll damage your brand and reputation, perhaps irreparably, and burn exactly the bridges you’ll need in the long run.”

Bremner says stepping on people ruins relationships in the workplace.

“Employers’ needs have changed. It’s no longer enough to have technical expertise. You need to be able to collaborate positively and effectively with others,” she says.

“There’s increasing focus on soft skills and emotional intelligence in the workplace. So to succeed in your career, you need the ability to build rapport, relationships and trust, exactly the things you sacrifice when you step on other people.”

Leadership expert Peter Fuda agrees denigrating others is no way to get ahead.

“If your goal is to create enemies, encourage in-fighting, politics and mistrust, it’s a great strategy. If your goal is to build a career and be effective in your next role, then it’s probably not the best idea,” says Fuda.

“Stepping on others to get ahead is symptomatic of highly aggressive workplace cultures, which typically produce volatile performance: think Enron.”

Fuda says if you’re using a step-on-others strategy, the best possible personal outcome will be the short-term acquisition of a desired role.

“The more likely medium-term impact is being surrounded by a group of people who don’t like you, trust you and want you to fail.

“Today’s business environment is already chaotic. If everyone is trying to step on everyone else to get ahead, we will simply be taking that chaos and creating more chaos.”

So what’s the alternative to grinding others down in your quest to get ahead? Bremner says the best way is to focus on collaboration instead of sidelining others.

“Build strong, strategic networks, help your contacts, develop a reputation for being great at what you do and for bringing out the best in others. That’s a stand-out combination for anyone’s career.”

Similarly, Fuda says the best way to get ahead is to concentrate on achievement, rather than competition. “To use a swimming analogy, focus on your own lane. Every time you look across the other lanes at your competitors, you lose precious time.”

Have you ever stepped on someone or been stepped on? Post a comment and share your story.

21 comments so far

I know many people who are now at the top over the carcasses of multitudes. Stepping on others definitely works for some - usually the corporate psychopaths. It's their recipe for success, and success is often theirs. Works well if your career success is not dependent on the repetitional wreckage left behind.

That's never the recipe for great leadership nor for worthy legacy. Great leaders build greatness for everyone.

Commenter

Stukke

Date and time

February 21, 2014, 5:17AM

+1Sagacious comment.

Commenter

Glove Puppet

Location

Left Field

Date and time

February 21, 2014, 6:07AM

@ Stukke

Agreed. They also move on quickly, from perch to perch, staying a step ahead of the carnage and rubble that they make out of what others had created through hard work and care.

Commenter

Agreed

Date and time

February 22, 2014, 3:51AM

What a load of bollocks. Always manage expectations up the line and don't worry about anything else

Obviously, a level of competence is also required

Commenter

Nick from Sydney

Date and time

February 21, 2014, 5:54AM

Nick, sorry to say that Ii feel sorry for you if that is your attitude, doubly so if taken with arrogant dismissiveness of contrary views!. Manipulation of the expectations of management and ensuring that you are just competent enough to get by might possibly give you a measure of conventional success (don't count on it!). What it can never do is make you a master of your chosen profession or build you into a person of solid character who can hold their head high regardless of how life treats you. The real damage in treating underlings badly, quite apart from anything it does to them, is that it makes you into the kind of person who does that. Those who don't understand this, as you seem not to do, have very much to learn about life, and will be very lucky if they do learn it from much subsequent unnecessary suffering!

Commenter

Ghost of Christmases to Come

Date and time

February 21, 2014, 11:10AM

Wake up people, Feral Capitalism is dependant on the majority doing the right thing so those that constantly exploit others don't have too much competition on their way to the top.

The system over-rewards greed and selfish behaviour, and as long as it does these people will still climb over almost everyone else in the workplace as well as outside of it.

Commenter

DC

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

February 21, 2014, 6:46AM

That is what we saw in the US leading to the ongoing global financial crisis.

Who had to bail them out? The super-capitalists were bailed out by the socialists or big government who they despise.

The irony seems to have escaped them. Hundreds of billions were made by stepping on others

Commenter

Good Logic

Date and time

February 22, 2014, 10:31AM

DC: There seems to be two parallel employment universes; Big Business and Small Business. I'd agree that in SMEs, what the writer says here is true, that climbing up by stepping on others only gives you short term gain.

However in Big Business, I'd say that it still is the case that stepping on others gets you up the ladder. In the realm of Big Business, the psychopaths rule. My guess would be that the higher up you desire to reach in a Big Business, the higher you have to rate in Robert Hare's Psychopath Checklist.

Commenter

Scott H

Location

Brisbane

Date and time

February 22, 2014, 2:42PM

I work in a small business in which my very supportive husband is the senior partner of three. I constantly strive for collaboration, consultation and team work to develop our practice but I am trampled, stifled, undermined and side-lined by long-term less qualified staff in established 'positions of authority' who were resistant to my employment, are severely limiting our business development and are making my life miserable. Unfortunately work options are limited in our small rural community so I either have to like it or lump it. The alternative is 10 years of boredom at home until my husband retires. A rock and a hard place.

Commenter

Money tree

Location

NSW

Date and time

February 21, 2014, 7:29AM

As an ex Big 4 accounting firm employee, this sounds all too familiar. Unfortunately my ex employer encouraged this behaviour, but forgot to think about the implications when talented employees joined target clients in more senior roles. So not only have the current partners ruined the chance of securing any work, but those who are treading on toes to become the next generation of partners have done so as well! Given this particular firm is rapidly assuming the 4th position in the rankings, not the wisest way to run your culture.